Chapter One

The Past

 

The Alpha Corporation was created by the government to specialize in supernatural activities within and outside of the human species. They are spread out across the globe, but the headquarters resides on the edge of a forest in midtown Haven City, New York. A city similar to New York City, but slightly more advanced and expensive in the upper part of the city.

Downtown Haven is full of rundown houses, graffiti, potholes, drug dealers, dumpster fires, and dead trees. Surprisingly, people of all walks of life flourish there. There’s even a lower crime rate compared to midtown Haven, where everything else happens. It’s the so-called heart of the city, but the most dangerous area to live. There are tall buildings, bright lights, constant noise, hundreds of thousands of people, crime, poverty, and shady characters around every corner.

Asai, the commander of the Alpha Corps, sat at her desk, nose buried in a pile of reports. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and glanced over at her assistant, Carlie Cobbs, who tapped furiously at her tablet trying to keep up with Asai. There had been a spike in supernatural events, but what was to come was unlike any human had seen before.

“Asai!” Lieutenant Price shouts, bursting into her office. She looks up and sighs.

What is it now? she thinks. As if I don’t have enough to do already.

Price pants heavily, eyes wide as if he had just seen a ghost chasing him with a rusty kitchen knife. “There are unidentified flying objects that just entered the atmosphere. An…army.”

Asai and Cobbs follow the lieutenant outside and look into the darkened sky, gazing upon what Price had just described. These spaceships don’t look too different from circular discs, except these have humps going over the center of them and barriered windows. Along with the three administrators, guards of the Corps stand outside.

“Ca-call everyone. Get the guards and soldiers out here, ready to make a stand,” Asai says, taking a deep breath and gaining control of her trembling hands. “I want emergency services escorting the citizens out.”

“None of that will be necessary, Commander,” Dr. Daichi, lead doctor and scientist of the corporation, states.

He walks up to them, smiling, with a costumed hero strutting behind him. The hero is dressed in a black spandex suit with gold accents, a gold belt, blue cape, metal shield, and a violet peace symbol within a red shield on his chest. Daichi stops, and the hero continues to walk past Asai, Cobbs, and Price, floating off the ground and taking off towards the invading spaceships.

“What— Who is that?” Asai asks Daichi. Daichi side-eyes her, then looks back at his genius as he took to the skies, ready to face the threat head-on.

“Our savior,” Daichi simply states.

As if on cue, the hero called Noble barrels through one of the ships. As it falls towards the city, he spins around, flies back through the hole he created, and grabs the craft, pushing it towards the collection of ships. Even with the hole, the craft realigns itself among the horde and faces forward, toward Noble.

The ships have panels on their sides of them. They open, and plasma cannons rise from the gaps. They all aim at Noble, who calmly lifts his shield between the ships and himself and the planet. The cannons focus all their fire on the hero and his shield, but he shrugs off the blasts as his shield absorbs most of the hits.

Before he can make another move, the bay doors of the ships open and aliens of varying size, shape, and color leap out. But before they can even breathe in Earth’s air, they are forced back into their respective ships, Noble, using his shield to shove them without injuring any of them.

“Leave,” Noble demands to no one in particular, but it’s clear he speaks to the leader of the alien force.

Noble stands his ground in case the aliens try anything else, but their engines whir and whine as they turn around and flee the planet.

Present

The invasion was four years ago. The public consensus was that it really happened. The Alpha Corps tried covering it up, but the citizens of Haven were smarter than that. It was the day everyone stepped outside to look at the spaceships. The day the world confirmed aliens do exist. Sure, there were deniers, but everyone, not just in Haven, but in the world, knew more than that. There was a sense of unity in the feeling. The experience.

However, not everyone knew about the hero who defended them. This was the conspiracy, whether this so-called hero existed in the first place. People had taken pictures on their phones, even video trying to record proof, but no matter how much evidence someone had, it was chalked up to a mass hoax.

Jay Jones, a senior in high school, believed the hero was real, but since it was four years ago, it was no longer a hot topic. Everyone moved onto the next trend.

Jay walks on the sidewalk with his friends Kendra Perry, a senior, and Tucker Howard, Jay’s closest friend.

Jay wears a red, zip-down hoodie with blue accents, a green T-shirt, and navy-blue jeans. He has a diamond earring in his left ear, a yellow rubber band on his right wrist, and stainless-steel dog tags hanging from his neck. The only notable thing about his face is the black stubble on his chin.

Kendra wears a red half-shirt, exposing her pale arms and midriff. She also wears slightly baggy blue sweatpants, which hang just low enough that a hint of her black underwear shows around her hips. They match both the choker she wears and her naturally black hair.

Tucker wears a forest green tank top, which exposes his brown arms, and pitch-black jeans with a crimson red belt, the same color as his irises. He also wears tan boots that are lighter than his dark-brown hair. Both Jay and Kendra wear white sneakers. Jay is in hi-tops, and Kendra in low-cut skate. They come from school, with their bags resting comfortably on their backs. Jay looks over to Tucker.

“Your parents coming to graduation?”

“My mom can make it. Dad might have to work, though,” Tucker answers.

“What about yours, Jay?” Kendra asks, smiling.

Jay looks up at the sky. “I hope my mom can make it. The university might hold her, though.”

Jay’s mom, Jackie Jones, is a professor of English at Haven University. She did her best to raise him properly without the aid of Jay’s father, who disappeared when Jay was only five years old, on a mission in Japan. The US military was not at war with Japan, but it was to be a reconnaissance mission on classified information.

One of the only things Jay remembers his father saying was that he and his mother were the lights of his life. The word light is imprinted on one of the dog tags Jay wears. The other being the only dog tag found when the military searched for his father in Japan.

Jay is unable to remember what his father’s face looked like. When he tries to imagine it, all he sees is a blur, as if it were a smudged painting. He does remember his father’s muscular figure and skin, which was a little bit lighter in tone than Jay’s. He still believes his father is out there somewhere.

Jay looks across the street and waves at the convenience store owner, Mr. Edwards.

“Hey, Mr. Edwards!” Jay shouts.

“Hey, gang!” Mr. Edwards waves back. He then turns to a couple of street thugs selling drugs and shakes a wrinkly fist at them.

“What’d I tell you punks about selling in front of my store? Go on now!”

One of the thugs steps forward. “What’re you gonna do, old man?” Another thug takes out a knife and moves toward Mr. Edwards. Jay drops his bag and rushes across the street, avoiding cars along the way.

“Jay!” Kendra shrieks.

Jay runs up to Mr. Edwards, first looking at the shopkeeper, checking for any wounds in his dark skin, before looking over at the punks. He glares intensely at the thugs under the rim of his red hoodie. The goon with the knife squints at Jay before the one who spoke, the lead goon, holds out a hand. He looks at Jay, then turns to the knife-wielder.

“Nah, man. He’s cool.”

The thugs walk off. Jay turns back to Mr. Edwards, who watches the punks leave.

“Everything all right?” Jay asks.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m alright, Son. Just sick of those goons.”

Kendra screams again. She’s holding Jay’s bag. “JAY!” Jay averts his attention to his friends across the street. “Come back!”

“Can you bring it over, Ken?” Kendra rolls her eyes before she crosses the street.

“I’ll talk to you guys later,” Tucker shouts and waves before walking off. Kendra hands Jay his bag.

“See ya, Tuck!” Jay shouts back.

“You okay?” Kendra asks him.

Jay nods. “I’m alright. Head home, Ken. I’ll catch up with you later.”

Kendra smiles at him and blushes. She hugs him, then heads off. Jay focuses his attention on Mr. Edwards.

“Hey, let me know if those goons ever come back, Mr. Edwards,” Jay says.

“Nah, Jay,” Mr. Edwards says with a wave of his hand. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll just call the cops next time.”

“You know I can help, right?”

“Don’t want it. I know your reputation precedes you with the thugs around here, but I don’t want you fighting. You’re not like that hero everyone believes was a thing,” Mr. Edwards says. “Stay out of trouble, ya hear?”

Jay looks at the ground. “Yeah.”

#

A few burly guards in black business suits, and even darker shades, stand outside of a local grocery store. Jay walks past them with his head down, deep in thought. It’s not that he wanted to be a hero, but it got him thinking about what the future holds for him. Could a living be made being a hero? If he wasn’t going to college, what would he do instead? Maybe continue fighting, but professionally. Like boxing or mixed martial arts.

A guard speaks up. “Jones.” Jay turns around, facing the guard. “Offer still stands.”

Jay turns back around and continues walking. “I told you guys, I’m good.”

“Okay. Just lettin’ you know. You know where to find us if you ever change ya mind.”

#

Jay lives with his mother in a row of two-family middle-class houses. The Jones’s side of the red-brick house is rather rundown. All four of the steps are cracked. The chipped, black railing is loose and unstable.

The other side of the house is the exact opposite, with smooth steps and a stable, chrome railing. Jay walks up the stairs on the left side of the house. He takes out his keys before he stops to wave at his older neighbor who lives in the building to his left.

“Hey, Ms. Hayes.”

“Hi, Jay!”

Jay goes back to unlocking the door before the right door opens. Ms. Crawford, the landlady, emerges from her side of the house. She’s an older woman who lives alone. No kids. No spouse. She has bleached blonde hair that doesn’t match her black eyebrows. She is almost always seen in a red business suit that matches the bricks of the building.

“Jay, your mother—”

“What about her?”

“She’s—”

“She what?!” Jay shouts.

“She’s in the hospital. She was mugged.”

Jay takes a second to take the news in. Thoughts of murdering whoever hurt his mother rush through his head. He doesn’t care about the repercussions. Someone harmed the closest person to him, and he’s going to find out who. He clenches his fists.

“Also…”

Jay snaps out of his violent thoughts to look back at the landlady. “What?”

“I don’t know how to say this without ruining your day further, but—”

“Say. It.”

“Rent is due.”

Jay glares at Ms. Crawford as if his gaze could pierce through her. “She didn’t already pay it?”

“No. The last time she paid was last month. You’ve been good with rent lately. I would really hate to see it go back in the other direction. I wouldn’t want to—”

“I get it.”

Jay finally opens the door to his side of the house and walks inside. It is really dark in the house, especially for the afternoon. The shades have been drawn, and the curtains covering them.

Without turning on the lights, Jay drops his bag on the ground before walking over to a chair to sit with his head in his hands to collect himself. His mind races about everything else that could go wrong.

He could lose his mother. He could lose the house. It’s possible he won’t find a job after graduating. The longer he sits in the dark, the longer his thoughts spiral until he stands and walks out of the door.